Get started

Follow this guide to get started with Internal DNS.

Before you begin

• Make sure you have an Enterprise account with access to Gateway resolver policies and Internal DNS.

• Consider the different ways in which you can connect to Gateway resolver.

  Warning

  If using WARP, make sure your internal DNS zones or their TLDs are not listed in your Local Domain Fallback configuration. Otherwise, DNS queries for a matching domain will be sent to the local DNS server specified in the fallback, instead of being sent to Cloudflare.

• If you will be using an API token for authentication, make sure you have the following permissions:

API token configuration

Permissions

• Account - DNS Views - Edit
• Zone - DNS - Edit
• Account - Account Settings - Edit
• Zone - DNS Settings - Edit
• Zone - Zone - Edit

Account Resources

• Include - (Your account)

Zone Resources

• Include - Specific zones

  When creating a token for Internal DNS, we recommend scoping it to specific internal zones rather than using "All zones". This follows the principle of least privilege. If you create new internal zones later, you will need to update the token scope to include them. Support for automatic zone-type scoping (for example, "all internal zones") is planned for a future release.

About authentication

Internal DNS uses the same authentication model as the rest of Cloudflare DNS. There is no separate role or special permission group for internal zones. You use standard DNS permissions scoped to the specific zones you want to manage.

One important distinction: a zone-scoped token cannot create a zone because the zone does not exist yet to be scoped to. To create an internal zone via API, you need a token with Zone > Zone > Edit scoped to All zones or at the account level. After the zone exists, switch to a zone-scoped token for managing records and settings.

1. Set up your internal DNS zone

Dashboard

1. In the Cloudflare dashboard, go to the Internal DNS page.

   Go to Internal DNS

2. Select Create an internal zone.

3. Give your internal zone a name.

Internal zone configuration conditions

• Internal zones can contain the same DNS record types that Cloudflare supports for public zones.
• An internal zone can have the same name as a public zone in the same account.
• Each internal zone can be linked to multiple views.¹
• There can be several internal zones with the same name in one account. However, two internal zones with the same name cannot be linked to the same view.
• Internal zones are not subject to any top-level domain (TLD) restrictions. This means that an internal zone can be created if its TLD is not registered publicly (for example, xyz.local), if it is created on the TLD itself (local), or even if on the root (.).

¹ Logical groupings of internal DNS zones that are referenced by Gateway resolver policies to define how a specific query should be resolved.

4. Add DNS records to your internal zone using your preferred option:

• Import a formatted BIND file.
• Select Add a record and choose Create under the record type you want to add. Refer to DNS record types for details.

5. Repeat this process for each internal zone you wish to add.

Note

Creating multiple internal DNS records in batch is currently only supported via API.

API

1. Use the Create Zone endpoint to create an internal zone. Specify your account ID and set the type to internal.

Internal zone configuration conditions

• Internal zones can contain the same DNS record types that Cloudflare supports for public zones.
• An internal zone can have the same name as a public zone in the same account.
• Each internal zone can be linked to multiple views.¹
• There can be several internal zones with the same name in one account. However, two internal zones with the same name cannot be linked to the same view.
• Internal zones are not subject to any top-level domain (TLD) restrictions. This means that an internal zone can be created if its TLD is not registered publicly (for example, xyz.local), if it is created on the TLD itself (local), or even if on the root (.).

¹ Logical groupings of internal DNS zones that are referenced by Gateway resolver policies to define how a specific query should be resolved.

Example

Required API token permissions

At least one of the following token permissions is required:

• Zone Zone Edit
• Zone DNS Edit

Create Zone

curl "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/zones" \
  --request POST \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN" \
  --json '{
    "account": {
        "id": "<ACCOUNT_ID>"
    },
    "name": "<ZONE_NAME>",
    "type": "internal"
  }'

2. Add DNS records to your internal zone using your preferred option:

• Import a formatted BIND file. Refer to the DNS records how-to for guidance.
• Use other API endpoints, such as /batch, to manage DNS records. Refer to Batch record changes for details.

3. Repeat this process for each internal zone you wish to add.

(Optional) Reference a zone from another zone

During an internal DNS query resolution, if no internal record is found within a matching internal zone, Cloudflare will check if the matching internal zone is referencing another internal zone. Successive references can be followed with a maximum of five references in a chain.

For details, refer to reference zones.

Dashboard

1. In the Cloudflare dashboard, go to the Internal DNS page.

   Go to Internal DNS

2. Select a zone.

3. Within the selected zone, go to Reference zone.

4. Select Add reference zone.

5. Find the zone you want to use as reference and choose Select in the respective row.

API

1. Use the Update DNS settings endpoint to add a reference from an internal zone to another internal zone. In --json, specify the internal_dns object with the parameter reference_zone_id.

In the following example, internal zone A (ID 8a904aeb565c42cfa207d98f6edea2f3) is referencing internal zone B (ID 8e64c6fb4b514f3faf64de81efc11e51).

Required API token permissions

At least one of the following token permissions is required:

• Zone DNS Settings Write
• DNS Write

Update DNS Settings

curl "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/zones/8a904aeb565c42cfa207d98f6edea2f3/dns_settings" \
  --request PATCH \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN" \
  --json '{
    "internal_dns": {
        "reference_zone_id": "8e64c6fb4b514f3faf64de81efc11e51"
    }
  }'

2. Link your internal zone to a view

Since the resolver policy will require a DNS view, you must have at least one view to be able to route requests to internal zones.

Dashboard

1. In the Cloudflare dashboard, go to the Internal DNS page.

   Go to Internal DNS

2. Go to Internal DNS Views.

3. Select Create a view.

4. Give your view a descriptive name.

DNS view configuration conditions

• DNS views can be empty, with no internal zones linked to them.
• A DNS view cannot contain public DNS zones.¹
• Each internal DNS zone name must be unique within a given DNS view.
• Each DNS view name must be unique within a given Cloudflare account.

¹ DNS zones that contain public DNS records and are accessible by public resolvers.

5. Select Manage zones to add zones to your view. Select the internal zones that should be used to resolve queries sent by Gateway resolver to this view.
6. Choose Save to confirm.

API

1. Use the Create Internal DNS View endpoint. For each view you create, list all the internal zones that should be grouped under that view.

DNS view configuration conditions

• DNS views can be empty, with no internal zones linked to them.
• A DNS view cannot contain public DNS zones.¹
• Each internal DNS zone name must be unique within a given DNS view.
• Each DNS view name must be unique within a given Cloudflare account.

¹ DNS zones that contain public DNS records and are accessible by public resolvers.

3. Configure Gateway policies

Note

The Gateway configuration must exist within the same Cloudflare account where the internal zone exists.

Besides selecting an internal DNS view when setting up your resolver policies, you can also enable the fallback through public DNS option.

Dashboard

1. In Cloudflare One ↗, go to Traffic policies > Firewall policies > Resolver policies.
2. Select Add a policy and enter a name and description.
3. Create an expression for the traffic you wish to route. For guidance about selectors, operators, and values, refer to Gateway resolver policies.
4. Select Use Internal DNS. Choose the view that queries matching the expression should be sent to.
5. (Optional) Adjust the option to Fallback through public DNS according to your use case.

• Off: Gateway DNS resolver returns the response as-is to the client.
• On: In case the response from the internal zone is REFUSED, NXDOMAIN, or a response with a CNAME type, Gateway DNS resolver sends the query to Cloudflare 1.1.1.1 public resolver and tries to resolve the query via public DNS.

6. Select Create policy to confirm.

API

Use the API endpoints under Zero Trust > Gateway > Rules to set up resolver policies. For guidance about selectors, operators, and values, refer to Gateway.

Use the rule settings object to define resolve_dns_internally, specifying view_id and fallback option. The fallback options behave as follows:

• none: Gateway DNS resolver returns the response as-is to the client.
• public_dns: In case the response from the internal zone is REFUSED, NXDOMAIN, or a response with a CNAME type, Gateway DNS resolver sends the query to Cloudflare 1.1.1.1 public resolver and tries to resolve the query via public DNS.

Once you add the Gateway resolver policy, it will be listed in the respective internal view under Resolver policies referencing this view.

Manage with Terraform

You can also manage Internal DNS resources with the Cloudflare Terraform provider ↗. The patterns are identical to public DNS zones — the only difference is setting type = "internal" on the cloudflare_zone resource.

Use a zone-scoped API token for day-to-day management and an account-level token for creating new zones. If your token is scoped to specific zones, remember to update it when you add new internal zones. For a complete working example, refer to the Terraform provider documentation ↗.